


Feet on the Ground

by eugyne (AreteNike)



Series: The Law of Gravity [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Altean Lance (Voltron), Galra Keith (Voltron), Gen, Insecurity, keith and lance are brothers au, lance is competitive but he still loves his brother okay, not s6 (or s5) compliant, they are half alien and their parents are qpps
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-18
Updated: 2018-06-18
Packaged: 2019-05-24 18:29:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14959856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AreteNike/pseuds/eugyne
Summary: Lance has his brother, and that's enough.





	Feet on the Ground

**Author's Note:**

> if youre reading this as part of The Law of Gravity, it can be read in any order with the others. if youre reading as part of Brothers in Arms, this and Eyes to the Sky can be read in any order, but it will otherwise be chronological (i anticipate a third part... eventually).
> 
> there is so goddamn much i want to do with this au but i dont know if ill ever get to it... but i want at least to write the boys finding out theyre part alien because dammit thats why i started this thing in the first place

As long as Lance can remember, Keith has been there.

They're not brothers by blood, but that's never mattered. The other halves of their birth parents, Lance's father and Keith's mother, they've never mattered. They're family either way. And yeah, Keith always seems more at home out in the desert while Lance doesn't mind the noise of the town, but that doesn't mean anything. If it's something picked up in infanthood, he doesn't remember; the earliest thing he  _ can _ remember is their first day of preschool together, and he was crying so hard at being left behind but Keith came and held his hand and they stuck together like glue all day, and he felt better.

He likes telling that story despite the embarrassment because it is his prerogative as the (technically) older sibling to tease his brother about a time when he used to be cute. 

That said, Keith is his twin in every aspect that matters; inseparable, through school and beyond, to the Garrison, to the sky. Lance is better at people, and Keith is better at school stuff; Lance shares his friends and in return Keith helps him study and never, ever judges him for not getting it. Keith can fly better, but sometimes it's like that's the only place he knows how to be—Lance knows how to keep his feet on the ground, bring him back to Earth. 

So yeah, Keith got better grades and stuff, but it didn't really rankle until they got into the Garrison and Keith was picked for fighter pilot straight off and Lance got waitlisted. Stuck in the cargo pilot track while his little brother got the glory. 

"We'll fix this," Keith had said, and yeah, they had, Lance made fighter track next semester, but he couldn't just... forget that. And it's not like Lance could've gotten the short end of the genetic stick when they share no genes, it's not like some force of fate decided Keith should get the brains and Lance the social skills, there's no  _ balance _ here to even out, but. 

It stings. 

And then Keith manages to befriend the hottest—physically and metaphorically—guy in school, probably on account of some weird ace pilot camaraderie, without Lance's interference at all—he's never even managed to get within ten feet of the guy, for fuck's sake—and, man. That really stings. Because if Keith can befriend  _ Shiro _ on his own, what's left for Lance? Keith grew his own social skills, apparently, and it's only a matter of time before he learns to keep himself grounded too and then he won't need Lance anymore. 

"Why do you have to have your own thing?" Hunk asks when Lance complains about it. "I mean, he's your brother, he's not gonna ditch you just because he made one friend."

"You don't understand," says Lance. "He's better than me at everything now. That was it, that was the last thing."

"Ok, first of all, I seriously doubt that," says Hunk. "Second of all, you're nothing like him? Like, you are a completely different person, there's no point in comparing yourself. You're you."

Lance drags his hands down his face. "That doesn't make me feel better."

Hunk rolls his eyes. "You love him, right?"

"Yeah?"

"And he loves you?"

"Yeah?"

"So do you think he's being good at stuff to spite you?"

"Of course not!" Lance throws up his hands. "He's not  _ trying _ to be better than me, he just  _ is _ ."

"He's  _ not _ better than you. I mean, okay, maybe he can fly better," Hunk concedes, "but you are way more dedicated, and way  _ friendlier, _ might I add, and being better at flying doesn't make him a better person than you. So there."

"He's not a bad person," Lance says immediately. "And he wanted to be here just as bad as me."

"And you're  _ both _ here," Hunk reminds him patiently.

And, well.. Hunk may have a point. And Lance has known Keith all his life and it's not like the guy has ever had much luck in the friendship department. He's  _ had _ friends, but it was always Lance who introduced them.

This is... probably really good for him, actually, because Lance can't always be there to make friends for him.

And now he feels like a huge jerk when he should've been  _ proud _ of his brother.

"You're right," Lance says finally. "As always."

"As always," Hunk repeats smugly.

And so it's with sympathy that Lance stands with Keith as they watch the mission to Kerberos launch. Shiro won't be back for almost a year, and Matt with him—who Lance is  _ pretty _ sure Keith  _ sort of _ befriended—which leaves them back where they started, both still here on the ground, looking up. 

"C'mon," Lance says, patting Keith on the back as the last of the crowd and rocket trail disperses. "Hunk made celebratory brownies and I wanna get some before the others eat them all. You in?"

Keith waits another moment, one long lingering look at the sky, and then he returns to Earth.

"Yeah," he says.

Lance's first thought, upon hearing the news that the mission had been lost, was that Keith must be devastated. Then came the rest—how could this happen, how could the Garrison's golden boy have  _ crashed, _ oh god, their poor  _ families... _

Even so, he makes his way to Keith's room immediately, finds it locked, knocks.

"You in there, Keith?"

"Yeah," comes the response, painfully small.

"You okay?"

There's a very long pause. "Yeah," Keith says, which is obviously untrue, but if he wants his space Lance will give it.

"If you need anything, I'm here," he reminds him, just in case.

"I'm on the phone with Dad," Keith says, and boy isn't that a relief to hear. Dad always knows what to do. "Thanks."

"Anytime, Keith," Lance says, and leaves his door unlocked that night, just in case. Sure enough, late, there's a timid knock that nevertheless rouses him from restless sleep.

"It's unlocked," he calls sleepily.

When Lance had a nightmare, when he was young, he'd climb into Keith's bed with him and curl up with his brother, where it felt safe—the two of them against the world, shielded by their blankets. Keith had done the same. They didn't do it nearly as often anymore, but he had the night before they came here, just seeking that extra bit of comfort before everything changed. And Keith, for all his teenage rebellion and general lack of gestures of affection, had let him without the slightest complaint. 

So it's not a surprise when his mattress dips and Keith squeezes onto the narrow bed with him, back to back and head to feet. Lance lets his feet rest against Keith's shoulders in lieu of a hug and, soon, falls back asleep.

The next week is rough. Keith spends most of it split between Lance's bed and Iverson's office—though the latter he hears only from rumor; Keith doesn't say much of anything when they're together. He's hurtling rapidly towards something, Lance figures, and it's probably nothing good, but for once he can't figure how to stop it. Keith just seems to have lost hope and it's killing him.

"Just give him space," Mom advises when Lance begs for help. "I know it's hard, but he's grieving. He just lost someone he cares about. He'll be okay, but it'll just take time. You just watch out for him in the meantime."

And then one night Keith doesn't come back to Lance's room. Lance goes to Keith's and finds it empty—stripped bare, in fact, of any sign that Keith had been here in the first place. His heart drops to his toes.

He makes his way through the Garrison as fast as he dares, dodging teachers down to the hangar. He gets there in time to see Keith astride a vaguely familiar hoverbike, just—leaving. Gliding right out the open doors without so much as saying goodbye.

Lance staggers back out of the hangar before the yelling security guards find him, dashes back to his room, and calls Keith. And calls again, and again, and again, more than a dozen times before he flings his phone at his bed at the sound of Keith's voicemail.

He paces a while, but the sound of Hunk's snoring does nothing to calm him. So finally, he calls home.

"Keith left!" he says immediately, the moment Dad picks up with a sleepy  _ what? _ There's a murmur and a click, a slight echo to show he's been put on speaker. Dad calls for Mom.

"Keith left," Lance repeats the moment he hears Mom in the background. "He just took all his stuff and left? He didn't even say goodbye! I saw him go on Shiro's hoverbike. Mom—Dad—I don't know where he went."

That sets the parent train in motion. Mom texts Keith; Dad murmurs soothing things into the phone until Lance is breathing at a relatively normal rate again.

"He's safe," Mom says finally, and Lance lets out a sigh of relief so large Hunk mumbles something in his sleep.

"I know where he is," Dad adds, which is even better. "I'll go get him in the morning."

If Dad thinks it can wait till morning, then everything must be okay. Lance flops down onto his bed with a sigh.

"Sleep, kiddo," Dad says, as Mom hums her agreement. "We'll take care o' this."

"Okay," Lance says. He's not sure if he manages to hang up before passing out.

He goes to class in the morning out of habit, but barely pays any attention, surreptitiously checking his phone whenever he can get away with it. He tries calling Keith a couple more times but it goes straight to voicemail.

At lunchtime, he finally calls home.

"Lance?" says Mom.

"Is Keith okay?" he asks.

"He's okay," she says. "Dad is with him."

He sighs. "Okay, good." It's not like he thinks Keith can't take care of himself. Keith can do anything. But... there's so much about this situation that just feels wrong. Keith should be here, showing him up, breaking all the simulator records and showing Lance how he did it later. Not... out in the middle of the desert somewhere, alone all night. Lance should have done something differently—talked to him about his problems instead of distracting him from them, maybe. Maybe he'd still be here then.

"Lance?" Mom interrupts his thoughts.

"I was just thinking," Lance says slowly. "'Cause I always complained that he was better at me than everything. And I wanted to... not be in his shadow. But I didn't want it like  _ this _ ."

"Lance, honey, you already shine on your own."

Mom is basically obligated to say that. He sighs again. "That's not it! I just feel like it's... karmically my fault, or something. Be careful what you wish for, and all that."

"It isn't your fault," she says. "Of course it's not your fault. There's nothing you could have done to cause this."

"I guess." He pauses. "I wish I could... go back and change things, somehow, though."

Mom pauses. "What's done is done," she says gently. And he knows she's right, but that doesn't mean he likes it.

It's not long after he hangs up that his phone rings, and he snatches it up quickly to find "Dad" on the screen. Not Keith, but he'll take it.

"Dad! Are you with Keith?" he answers.

There's a half a second of silence, and then—"Um. It's me." That's Keith's voice, not Dad's. "My phone's dead so I borrowed Dad's."

"Keith!" Hearing that his brother is okay and hearing his voice directly are, in turns out, two very different things. "Shit! Are you okay?! Holy fuck, Keith, where have you been, why didn't you answer my calls?!"

"...My phone's dead," Keith says again. "I'm sorry. I just... needed space."

Lance takes a deep, quiet breath. Yes, okay. God knows Lance hovering over him 24/7 wasn't helping, but it's only been a week, and... Keith is Keith, yeah, but being alone can't be the best thing for him right now, can it? Not  _ now. _

"Are you coming back?" he asks finally.

"They expelled me."

"Oh." Damn, he didn't think it would be that bad. "Oh man. That fucking sucks."

"It's okay. I didn't want to be there anymore." Keith's voice is hoarse. He's probably been crying. Keith  _ never _ cries. "Not... like this."

"It won't be the same without you," Lance says. It won't be the same without Shiro, either, but Lance could've done something about  _ this. _ Talked to Keith about it, made more excuses to Iverson, something, anything. He  _ should _ have. 

"I'm sorry," Keith says, like he's going to cry, like it's his fault, and it hurts, physically. 

"Keith, it's okay. Okay?" Lance says quickly. "You have every right to be in mourning and Iverson is an asshole. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. Just... Just call me sometimes, okay?"

"Okay," Keith agrees just as quickly. "Okay. I will."

And he does. And sometimes Lance calls him, and sometimes he calls home at dinner and Keith is there. It's not the same as him  _ being _ there, though. 

They've done everything together, up until now. Lance is starting to feel like maybe he was the one who needed to learn to be his own person; he was the one who didn't know how to function without his brother. He's learning now, and it's harder than he thought it would be. 

He's not sure what Keith's doing, out there in the desert, but it isn't wasting away. As time goes on, as the pain fades, Keith starts sending him pictures—weird rock formations, lizards sunning themselves, a lone wispy cloud in an otherwise blue sky. Little lighthearted things that tell him Keith is recovering, or, at least, wants him to think so. But Keith is honest. 

Lance would like to say it's the fabled twin telepathy that has him dragging Hunk up to the roof after Pidge that night. He'd like to say he knew there was something coming the way Keith will tell him later. But honestly? It's boredom that gets him out of his room that night, curiosity that takes him up to the roof. 

It's the knowledge that Keith is out there in the desert somewhere, maybe near where the ship—the alien ship—came crashing down, that sends him after Pidge. There's a lot of desert and there's only one Keith, but logic is nothing against worry. 

The Garrison moves quickly. There's no sign of Keith among those in the camp and Lance can't decide if that's a good sign or not. 

And then Pidge gets into the cameras, and Shiro's there—his brother's dead best friend, alive.

"We have to get him out," he says immediately. They strapped the poor guy down, for fuck's sake, and no, Lance never did get to meet him personally, but he owes it to Keith to do  _ something. _

"Uh, how?" Hunk asks, just in time for a series of explosions to go off. 

Lance grabs Pidge's binoculars immediately to look. He scans the area—dust and smoke in the distance, Garrison officers running to look, and there, a familiar figure.

"Oh shit," Lance breathes. "It's Keith." They're gonna talk about his use of explosives later, thank you very much.

"Keith? Are you sure?" Hunk asks.

"Wait, Keith?" Pidge asks.

"He's my brother, I'd recognize him anywhere," Lance says in answer to both their questions. He lets Pidge have the binoculars back and starts scrambling down the slope. "Come on!"

"What's your brother doing here?!" Pidge squawks, like it isn't obvious.

No one stops them as they walk into the facility. At the end of the hall Keith is already lifting Shiro off the table he was strapped to, and Lance immediately jumps in to help.

"Keith!" he says. "Since when have you had  _ bombs? _ "

"What're you doing here?" Keith asks, like he has any right to talk.

"Saving Shiro, obviously." Lance hikes Shiro's other arm over his shoulders. "You didn't answer my question."

"Since yesterday." They start out of the room. "I had to be prepared..."

_ For what, _ Lance wants to ask, but when he looks over he finds his brother is pale and shaking, his gaze laser-focused on nothing in particular. Shock, maybe. It's not every day your best friend comes back to life—comes back in an alien ship after a year of silence.

They'll talk later, but for now, Lance will just  _ help. _

The ride back is harrowing. Lance trusts his brother in a cockpit, in the driver's seat, with his life, but right now, with too many passengers and Keith in shock, he's allowed a little worry. But they make it, because it's still Keith, and Lance has never known a better pilot.

He'd sort of figured Keith was staying out in the shack but knowing that and watching him carry Shiro in, this time with Hunk's help, is another thing entirely. They look so out of place here—well, Keith doesn't, but the others do, Hunk and Shiro and Pidge trailing after them. This is a place for watching the stars with Dad, not hiding after breaking Shiro out of the Garrison.

The inside has changed too, a few more posters, a little more clutter, an enormous corkboard on the wall festooned with pictures and maps and string. Keith always did things more by feel than by sight but he must have learned something from all those times he tutored Lance, because Lance can all but hear his voice explaining as he looks it over, following Keith's train of thought along every string.

It's clear enough he's been searching for something, but Lance doesn't know  _ what. _ Maybe Keith doesn't, either.

When Keith stumbles out of the bedroom and straight out to the porch without a word, Lance follows.

"Hey," he says as he sits. "Uh, nice to see you again." Which it is, despite everything. So sue him, he missed his brother.

"I knew he was coming," Keith says—still distracted, then. "I don't know how, but I knew."

And, Lance isn't an idiot. He saw the board with the words "energy source" in Keith's handwriting. He saw Shiro's new arm, the ship that came down from the sky. This is bigger than any of them, but Keith is somehow right in the middle of it. Some big destiny, or something.

He also knows that Keith needs to be grounded before he flies away.

So. "Maybe he's like, your soulmate," Lance offers, and Keith snorts, and that's a start.

"No, it's something else."

"Like what?"

"Dunno. I think..." Keith shrugs. "I think it has to do with my mother. I don't know. I think all that stuff in the shack was hers."

_ Some big destiny, _ Lance thinks. "You got it working?"

"Yeah."

"Did you ask Dad about any of it?"

"No, I couldn't," Keith sighs, which Lance totally gets.

"I'd ask why, but I don't think I could ask Mom about my father, either. They just..." He waves a hand.

"Don't want to talk about it," Keith finishes. "Yeah."

Lance looks up at the stars, and Keith does the same. It's different now, knowing they're not alone.

"What do we do now?" Lance asks.

"It's not too late for you to go back, you know," Keith says quietly. "They probably couldn't tell who was out there. You can still be a fighter pilot."

And leave Keith to this adventure alone? Not a chance. "Nah. Now that I know aliens are real or whatever? No way. Besides, you're right, the Garrison are liars. I mean, Shiro came back." He looks over at his brother. "How're you holding up? Because, y'know. Shiro."

Keith takes a shaky breath. "I'm glad he's back, but I don't know what it means."

"Besides that aliens are real?"

"Yeah. Besides that." He shrugs. "What do we do about it?"

Lance doesn't know. But he does know Keith has to have gone through the ringer tonight, and he has to take care of his brother.

"Sleep on it?" he suggests. "I mean, it's gotta be two in the morning by now. And then in the morning you can tell us about all that stuff on your corkboard."

Keith's gaze moves to the horizon. He squints slightly, like he's looking for something, but there's nothing but darkness.

"Yeah. Okay," he says finally.

Shiro has the bed, so Pidge gets the couch and the rest of them curl up on the floor. It's not that comfortable, but Lance is tucked between Hunk and Keith, and it's a good place to be—his best friend and his brother, in the shack he half-grew up in.

Maybe Keith  _ does _ have some destiny to fulfill, but Lance is going to be right there with him. Even if takes them away from Earth—up and out into the sky. 

Lance wakes to find Keith slipping out the door. He gets up to look out the window, sees Shiro out there, and gives them space. He wakes Pidge and Hunk up, though, because it's about time they all find out what's going on, and he doesn't think they're going to want to miss any of this.

"Shiro," says Keith when the two of them come back in. "This is my brother, Lance."

"Lance," Shiro repeats, holding out a hand to shake. "I've heard a lot about you."

"Aww, does baby bro talk about me?" Lance teases, shooting his brother a grin.

"Four months!" Keith says, throwing up his hands. "You're only older by four months!"

"Still counts."

Keith glares, and Lance sticks out his tongue, and Hunk rolls his eyes because he's seen this before. But it's so painfully short of a time before they're out on the bike again, searching for whatever caused those pins and string.

"Fuck," Lance says as realization hits him. He scrambles for his phone. "Mom and Dad."

"Call them!" Keith shouts over the wind and the bike.

"I am!" Lance has a death grip on his phone as he navigates his contacts—the last thing he wants is to drop it off a speeding hoverbike. He hits dial.

"Lance?"

"Mom! Dad! I'm with Keith, Shiro came back last night," Lance shouts into his phone. He can barely hear Mom's response.

"The crash," she says.

"Yeah! Keith says we're gonna go find what he's been looking for. But there's something weird going on with the Garrison." Better to leave out the details—they'll just worry more. And then they'll try to come help. And if Lance has learned anything from the movies, it's that parents don't get to go on adventures—if they're alive at all.

Call him superstitious. He wants his parents safe at home.

"Be careful," says Dad. "Keep your feet on the ground."

"We will!" Lance shouts, but he doesn't know if he means it. "Love you, Dad! Mom!"

"Me too!" Keith adds.

"We love you—" Mom's voice cuts off. Lance shouts, "Bye!" anyway. He puts the phone away and holds on tight to Keith as they descend into a canyon; he can only guess what they're hurtling towards. He can't really even guess. They're flying blind.

At least Keith is their pilot.

But it's Lance's hand that makes the markings on the cave wall glow. It's Lance the lion's eyes follow. It's Lance the glowy magic barrier drops for.

It feels as wrong as it feels right.

"You don't want my brother?" he whispers as he enters the cockpit—walks right into the lion's mouth and sits carefully in the seat there. "Weren't you calling for him or something?"

But she lights up for him, and him only. The others follow, and Keith is there at his side, looking around with an expression only Lance would recognize as awe—and all this time Lance thought it was Keith who wouldn't stay grounded, when he's the one being swept away.

Well, maybe it isn't Keith's destiny, whatever his mother left him; maybe it's for both of them. Maybe Lance can stand beside his brother as an equal, if he looks to the sky with him, just this once.

After all, there are four other lions out there somewhere.

**Author's Note:**

> come yell w me on tumblr @ [maternalcube](http://maternalcube.tumblr.com/)


End file.
